Prior Experience in Micro-surgery May Improve the Surgeon’s Performance in Robotic Surgical Training
originally published in the Int J Med Robot
Perez M, Perrenot C, Tran N, Hossu G, Felblinger J, Hubert J
BACKGROUND: Robotic surgery has witnessed a huge expansion. Robotic simulators have proved to be of major interest in training. Some authors have suggested that prior experience in micro-surgery could improve robotic surgery training.
OBJECTIVE: To test micro-surgery as a new approach in training, we proposed a prospective study comparing the surgical performance of micro-surgeons with that of general surgeons on a robotic simulator.
METHODS: 49 surgeons were enrolled; 11 in the micro-surgery group (MSG); 38 in the control group (CG). Performance was evaluated based on five dV-Trainer® exercises.
RESULTS: MSG achieved better results for all exercises including exercises requiring visual evaluation of force feed-back, economy of motion, instrument force, and position.
CONCLUSIONS: These results show that experience in micro-surgery could significantly improve surgeons' abilities and their performance in robotic training. So, as micro-surgery practice is relatively cheap, it could be easily included in basic robotic surgery training.
Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Int J Med Robot. 2013 Sep;9